After a rare off night, Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele combined to produce the go-ahead goal and eventual game-winner in the Winnipeg Jets’ 4-1 victory over the Arizona Coyotes.

GLENDALE — Nobody was more disappointed about a rare off night than Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele.

And after carrying the offensive load for a good chunk of this season, it was not a surprise to see the dynamic duo combine to produce the go-ahead goal and eventual game-winner in the Winnipeg Jets’ 4-1 victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday at Gila River Arena.

Jets defenceman Dustin Byfuglien — who also struggled in Friday’s 5-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights — didn’t get a point on the goal by Scheifele, but the goal doesn’t happen without him keeping the puck in at the blue line.

Byfuglien’s deft play led to Wheeler finding Scheifele for his 100th NHL goal in his 322nd game.

Scheifele wasn’t done there, finding Kyle Connor in the slot for a one-timer that gave the Jets a bit of breathing room.

For the majority of the games this season, the Jets top line — and specifically Wheeler and Scheifele — have not only carried the mail offensively, they’ve also set their pace with their hard work and determination.

“All three of our captains had great bounce-back games,” said Jets head coach Paul Maurice. “They were the guys that you have such a high level of expectation for their play. Those guys didn’t score and they got scored against, so they need to come back and play the way they did tonight. And they did.”

The Jets, who finished the road trip with four of a possible six points, improved to 9-4-3 on the season and are back in action on Tuesday, when they face the Coyotes in a rematch to open a three-game homestand at Bell MTS Place.

One of the common threads in the outright losses the Jets have suffered since the 0-2 start was an inability to use the surplus of speed to their advantage.

In fact, the losses to the Columbus Blue Jackets and Golden Knights saw the Jets get both out-skated and out-worked — which is generally a poor combination.

Off nights are going to happen over the course of an 82-schedule, that’s a harsh reality.

“No matter how good a team you are, you’re going to have games like that. The key is how are you going to come back from that,” Wheeler said. “That’s the biggest growth from our team. You got rid of the bad ones and come ready to play the next game.”

For the second time in as many days, the Jets gave up the first goal of the contest.

During a goalmouth scramble, Derek Stepan found defenceman Alex Goligoski in front and his shot caromed in off Zac Rinaldo at 14:33 of the first period.

Although the Jets had a bit more jump than they showed against the Golden Knights, they didn’t really have their skating legs and were unable to generate much offensively — directing only 10 shots on goal through more than 33 minutes of play.

But the Jets caught a break at 14:04 of the second period when fourth-line centre Matt Hendricks found a puck in the slot and his shot changed direction off the stick of Coyotes forward Brendan Perlini and fooled goalie Antti Raanta.

It was a rare goal from the fourth line and the first of the season for Hendricks.

“It was good timing in terms of scoring it,” said Hendricks.

Jets sniper Patrik Laine put the game on ice by scoring an empty-netter with 16.5 seconds to go.

It was the ninth goal of the season and gave him a goal in each of the past five games.

Jets goalie Steve Mason was making his first start in seven games and put forth a solid effort, finishing with 29 saves as he recorded his first victory of the season in his sixth appearance and fifth start.

“You know what, when you don’t play a lot, sometimes it’s tough to keep that motivation but I’ve been doing a pretty good job of staying positive and having fun with the guys,” said Mason. “It’s just nice to finally walk away from a game with a good feeling. It’s been a long time coming, basically since last season.”

With the Jets playing 14 games during the month of November, the Jets are going to need contributions from both Mason and Connor Hellebuyck.

With three games next week, the Jets will need to decide whether to go right back with Mason or to go back to Hellebuyck on Tuesday and perhaps play Mason on Thursday against the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Jets thought they might have lost defenceman Tyler Myers to what looked like a right knee injury early in the third period.

During a Coyotes power play, Myers got tangled up in front with Christian Dvorak and he fell to the ice in writing pain, grabbing his knee.

Myers, who has endured a number of painful injuries during the past two seasons, had to be helped off the ice.

Myers returned to the bench late in the third period and tested out his leg during a stoppage in play, then was on the ice for the final shift of the game.

Although he’ll need to be re-evaluated when the Jets return home, it looks as though Myers was able to avoid a serious injury.

“On the replay we thought he had caught his ankle and those can be real nasty,” said Maurice. “Great that he came back, we had our orthopedic surgeon here today to take a look at him. He felt he’d try, we’ll have a look at him tomorrow. A big piece we don’t want to lose.”

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